Artemis VS Agamemnon

Artemis: Goddess of the hunt, childbirth, animals, virginity and the wilderness.
Agamemnon: King of Argos, conqueror of Troy and son of Atreus.

Agamemnon and Artemis are two very powerful beings with some pretty nasty conflicts. Some in 'Agamemnon' and some before. According to Aeschylus, when Agamemnon decided to wage war with Troy, Artemis was upset over all of the innocents that would be killed in this war and prevented his passage across the sea. If we look elsewhere in literature we can find another conflict between these two. In Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon kills an animal which is sacred to Artemis and claims he's her equal as a hunter. Either story still has the same result, Agamemnon's troops cannot cross the sea without appeasing Artemis.

This brings us to a rather sketchy part of this story.  In order to please Artemis, the goddess who is upset about Agamemnon killing or sending innocents to their death, Agamemnon sacrifices his INNOCENT daughter. I'm not sure how you interpret that, but if I was Artemis I would take it as a slap in the face. Apparently she and I are different, thank god, so she allows their safe passage over to Troy. Although, we may find later that Artemis hadn't actually forgiven Agamemnon.

During the battle at Troy, Artemis stays behind the scenes for the most part. Although, her twin brother Apollo is extremely active, suggesting that she was involved in more ways than we know. We don't hear much about Artemis after this in 'Agamemnon', but I believe she had a hand in the events that unfolded upon the King's return to Argos.

Artemis, as previously stated, is the goddess of childbirth. This would suggest that she's also the goddess of motherhood, and maternal instincts. When Clytemnestra found out what had happened to her beloved child, she was filled with rage and hatred for her daughter's killer, which is to be expected. She waited in anticipation for Agamemnon to return, so she could make him pay for what he had done to Iphigenia. Then when the opportunity arose, she killed him like a skilled huntress. I don't know if this presumption is correct, but I would presume that Artemis had a hand in this killing. Even if she didn't 'pull the trigger',  I'm sure she was stoking the embers of anger in Clytemnestra's heart while Agamemnon was away. I can almost guarantee you that Artemis was watching as Agamemnon died, witnessing the 'mighty king' be brought down by his own wife.

So what did we learn this week? Don't mess with Artemis? Watch out for angry Mothers? Attempting to please someone by doing the same thing you did to offend them is never a good practice? All good answers. Tune in next week when we'll be talking about... Actually I have no idea. I should really read the syllabus.

Until next week,
Benjamin
P.S. I commented on Mallory's